Senate rejects House Republicans demand for a conference

The US Senate on Tuesday rejected a House demand to negotiate a budget compromise aimed at ending the day-old government shutdown, leaving lawmakers envisioning no quick solution to the crisis.

After a series of back-and-forth bills yielded no progress Monday in the frantic hours before federal agencies began closing their doors and ordering hundreds of thousands of employees to stay home, the Senate voted along party lines again to block a budget measure from the Republican-led House.

The measure called for a conference so negotiators from both chambers could thrash out a temporary budget to fund government for the first several weeks of the new fiscal year, which began Tuesday.

But like the efforts of previous days, the Republican bill linked its budget proposal to delaying President Barack Obama’s health care law, something Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has repeatedly said would be a non-starter in the Senate.